The Hitchcock Rule

The Hitchcock Rule is that the size of any object in a frame should be proportional to its importance to the story at that moment. It can be applied both on set and in the editing room to ensure that only the details that are really needed are captured. I put a close up of a clock ticking in one of my films to depict the passage of time and show the patience of one of the characters. I chose to highlight that detail because I didn't want the camera on the subject the whole time, and I wanted some other clips I could mix in. Since time was significant to that portion of the story, I figured it was proper to film a close-up of the clock, so in essence I was following Hitchcock's Rule without even knowing it.